Prayers of the People | September 7

Our Father, we come to You in the name of Christ Jesus, and in a spirit of deep thanks for these moments of quiet and silence to pray together in unity in this place.

We our mindful that as we move out of first gear and the season of Summer -with its pace of freedom and easy loveliness-and shift up into the gear of overdrive so characteristic of our pace in Autumn-time, of the need to consciously break for a moment from the good busyness of our lives and surrender our energies and pray now for Your church, for each one of our sisters and brothers around the world and for our loved ones and for ourselves. In surrender to Your “dearest will,” Lord God, we align our hearts with Your eternally-tender and ever-wise will as we bring these intentions and requests before You.

We pray for our troubled world, Father. We pray for every leader and each citizen in every country across the globe; our world is in crisis, and we cry out to You, Lord, for in the scriptures You have invited us to “come and reason” with You. Hear our lament, loving God, and answer our prayer, for You are a God of Peace.

We pray for Your intervention in the places of continued unrest, stubborn impasses and wars that envelope Iran, Syria, Ukraine, Russia, numerous countries in Africa, India, Pakistan, as well as the countries of Israel and Palestine. Raise up faithful, godly and obedient leaders who are committed to peace and justice for all. We pray specifically that Your church across the world, its leaders and its people might be united in love and courage, to pray without ceasing and to stand against the dangerous rhetoric and the evil acts of extremism that are being carried out in the name of religion, by groups like ISIS. In Christ’s name and by His grace, we pray that the power of these hateful words—and their barbaric acts—might be bound up, and brought down. We ask that Your love might be loosed in the hearts of the offenders and for Your pure forgiveness to wash clean and purify their hearts with the healing blood of our Saviour. We pray, too, that now and in the coming days and months that the evil intent of these words of hate will fall onto deaf ears so that these horrendous acts against humanity might stop. We place all of our hope and all of our faith in You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we surrender ourselves in commitment to praying ceaselessly in regard to this grave matter, Lord strengthen us for this task.

In Your mercy, Lord,
hear our prayer.

We pray for Your timely intervention as Africa and the world battles the Ebola virus and the potential global health crisis that threatens us at this time. We pray for the unity and the will of governments and their leaders around the world to take the steps necessary to engage in serious action to stop the spread of the yet-to-be-contained virus. Let the ears of our global leaders hear the wisdom and expertise of the brave and courageous scientists, researchers, doctors and nurses who know the best and safest course of action to take and who also know the crucial steps to move forward on to contain the Ebola virus. We pray that “action” trump “inaction” in this situation, Lord God. We ask also that You surround each front-line medical worker and researcher with a special hedge of protection from disease, as they selflessly minister to the sick and the dying.

In Your mercy, Lord,
hear our prayer.

We pray now for Your blessing and for the meeting of the needs of our sisters and brothers that are close to home.

We pray for every student in our midst, Father. We ask that you instill in them a healthy balance of anticipation, excitement and a strong work ethic as they head back to grade school, high school and university classes over the last week. May each one’s intellectual and academic pursuits be coupled with a gratitude, humility and awareness of the gift that learning extends to them.

We pray, too, for the city of Winnipeg, as we move into a municipal election next month and we ask You, Jesus, to guide each one of us-as the voting public-to be discerning and wise as we gratefully engage in the free act of casting our ballot to elect a mayor, councillors and school trustees.

We pray for the needs of the organizations directly supported materially and prayerfully by saint benedict’s table: These include Agape Table and the ongoing work of El-Shaddai in Haiti, to name a few. Bring joy and life and faith to those who draw very real sustenance directly from these ministries, Lord.

We pray fervently for the Indigenous Peoples of our city. We ask for a way forward so that genuine action and godly justice might be taken up on behalf of the victims and the families that have suffered violence because of the tragedy and loss of a beloved woman, friend, sister or daughter We pray for our Chief of Police, Devon Clunis and for the Winnipeg Police Board, as they consider the prospect of taking a leadership role on behalf of murdered and missing Aboriginal women.

In Your mercy, Lord,
hear our prayer.

In closing, we pray in unity and in the name of Jesus our Lord, for the community of saint benedict’s table and for all who worship and fellowship here each week, but also for those who are united with us each week from a distance. We pray for a blessing of grace on this worshipping community as it moves into a time of gratitude and celebration as it marks its 10th year anniversary. May the events that have been planned to commemorate this signpost in the life of our church, be filled with joy and thanksgiving that You, Lord God, have brought us to this very special place and this very special time.

I pray for relief, hope and healing for all who are here this evening who suffer, are struggling and who might be experiencing despair. In Your divine forgiveness and Your infinite love, embrace those here who ache and are in need of Your comfort and hope, Lord Jesus, and most importantly, help those here who are joyful and strong to bring comfort to the sister or brother, regardless of whether they are known or unknown to them. We call to mind as well those beloved to us that are in need of our prayer; and we commit them to You and we in turn commit ourselves to them in prayer and in practice.

Loving and gracious, Jesus we pray that in Your goodness and wisdom You might continue to lead, teach, strengthen, encourage and protect each one who serves on staff here at saint benedict’s table: Jamie, our priest, Larry our director of music and embrace each of the singers and musicians who gift us each week, as they share their talents in lyric and song. We also pray Your blessing on all the support staff at saint benedict’s table and for all who volunteer in various capacities in this community each week.

We set aside a moment now to thank You Lord and to pray especially for a beloved saint benedict’s table member and our outgoing Coordinator of Volunteers, Audrey Krushel, for her remarkable and faithful work over many years and to express our great appreciation for her loving and gracious service to this community. We pray that You continue to bless Audrey in her retirement and ask that You also bless our new, incoming Coordinator of Volunteers, Carolyn Mount, who follows Audrey in fulfilling this very important role at st benedicts table.